Connor: ‘That must have been hard for Ruth.’
Wifie: ‘Oh, terrible. But I had to speak out, you see, at the fatal accident inquiry, for the sake of the poor driver. Yes, he should have looked in his mirrors before he started reversing, but it wasn’t as if she couldn’t have got out of the way.’
I goes, ‘So what you’re saying is that it was… to all intents and purposes… suicide by milk float?’
Connor snorts.
Wifie gives him evils. ‘You could almost say that. The driver was convicted of dangerous driving nevertheless – got a few months in prison, poor man. He was devastated.’
‘He must have been,’ I goes.
‘Hell of a thing to happen.’ Connor makes like he’s consulting his notes. ‘And Liz and Ruth came to live next door when?’
‘Oh – it would have been about 1983, I suppose.’
‘They moved here from Australia, aye?’
‘Well.’ Wifie purses her lips. ‘That was their story. Liz had an Australian accent, yes, just a slight one. But Ruth didn’t. And when I would ask Ruth about Australia, she used to contradict what Liz had told me. About where they lived in Sydney, for one thing – Liz told me they lived in a suburb a lot like on Neighbours, and when they left to come to the UK, there was even a street party in the cul-de-sac to wish them bon voyage, but when I asked Ruth later if she enjoyed watching Neighbours because it reminded her of her old home – this was when Neighbours had just started and everyone was watching it – she said, “Oh, but we lived in a flat in the city, it was nothing like Neighbours.” I told her that Liz had said they did live in a similar suburb, and you could see her thinking fast, and then she came out with, “I was too young to remember – we moved to the city when I was five.” But Liz had told me they had that street party in the cul-de-sac when they left for the UK. That’s when I knew they weren’t telling the whole truth about it. And there were things Ruth didn’t know about Australia – like where Darwin was. Any child growing up in Australia would know that, surely?’
‘Aye,’ I goes, ‘that’s a bit strange. So you think maybe Liz was Australian but Ruth was brought up somewhere else?’
‘That was my suspicion. Although why they’d lie about it, I don’t know.’
Aye, that was the question all right. That was the fucking question.
‘Well, this is all very useful information, Mrs Campbell. Thank you.’ I goes to stand up.
‘And the monetary…?’
‘We’ll be in touch if the information you’ve provided facilitates the location of Ruth Innes,’ goes Connor.
‘And before we go,’ I says, ‘would it be possible to use your lavatory?’
21
‘I don’t think Edith will want to come, though,’ said Beckie through a mouthful of muesli.
Flora took a swallow of tea. ‘Well, maybe if you ask her really nicely, she will.’
‘I’m already giving her like half my lunch and she still hardly speaks to me.’
‘Beckie, you do realise that your own lunch is exactly the same size as ever? I hope you have been giving the extra food to Edith, and not eating it yourself.’
Beckie sighed. ‘Yes! But you know how seagulls swoop down and snatch your food and then they disappear? Edith’s like a human seagull. She’s suddenly there, and then after I’ve given her the food, she’s gone. I’ve asked her if she wants to play with us but she doesn’t.’
Flora bit her lip. She had passed on to Mrs Jenner her concern about Edith not getting enough to eat, and Mrs Jenner had said she’d look into it, but according to Beckie, Edith still seemed desperate for the extra lunch Flora was now packing, which included ever more calorific – and presumably tempting to Beckie – items such as Snickers and homemade flapjacks. Was Beckie handing it all over?
She’d have to speak to Mrs Jenner again.
‘If she does come to the party,’ added Neil, ‘you’re going to treat her like a princess the whole time she’s here. That’ll be a good start to making it up to her.’
Beckie sighed. ‘I know, but Edith hates me now.’
‘I’m sure she doesn’t,’ said Flora weakly, although this was all too likely.
She waited for Neil to back her up, but he was intent on the screen of his laptop, breaking his own ‘no screens at the table’ rule.
As she got up and walked to the sink behind his chair, she saw that he had a table of data up on the screen – catching up on the work he’d let slide since the Johnsons had reappeared. Getting back to normal life. Carrying on as if nothing had happened.
They’d had another argument in bed this morning. Neil had decided that the Johnsons’ whole strategy must be to persuade the authorities to review the adoption; to cast doubt on Neil and Flora’s suitability as adoptive parents by provoking them to violence.
‘Or to make us appear violent,’ he’d added. ‘I hardly even touched Carly Johnson.’
‘They’ve got you on camera pushing her!’
‘I didn’t push her. I just tried to get past, and she deliberately fell to the ground. She’s a pretty good actress, as you found out for yourself yesterday.’ He’d sat up in bed and glared at her. They had intended taking the footage of Lorraine and Carly Johnston coming to the door to the police as evidence of their breaching the court order, but on playing it had discovered that the camera angle, from behind Carly, made it look as if Flora flinging out her arm to tell them to ‘Fuck off’ was an attempt to hit the girl, who had staggered back on cue. Flora had argued that Caroline would back up her version of the encounter, but as Neil had impatiently pointed out, a friend was hardly an independent witness – and what if the Johnsons had realised their nosy neighbour next door had been listening and told the police to go and ask Ailish? What might Ailish not say, just to land them in it?
Flora had sighed. ‘We could just give the police the bit that shows them coming to the door. Truncate the footage at the point where I open the door…’
‘Don’t be stupid, Flora. The Johnsons would counterclaim that you tried to assault Carly again, and the police would ask to see the whole interaction and maybe interview Ailish.’
‘But if we wiped the footage after the point where they come to the door…’
‘We can’t wipe it, it’s all kept securely for six months on Eden Security’s system. If the Johnsons do make another complaint off their own bat, and the police ask to see the footage, we’re in trouble. We’ve seriously underestimated them. We’ve been stereotyping them as violent thugs without a brain cell between them who’ve been making a series of incompetent attempts to snatch Beckie, or possibly just harassing us out of malice – but they’ve obviously got another agenda. They’re trying to make out we’re the bad guys. And so far they’re doing a pretty good job. What we have to do is remember that it’s all bluster – that they’re not going to actually do anything. They’re not going to hurt us or snatch Beckie. We have to just turn the other cheek. Not let them provoke us again.’